A Look At Tesla's Cheapest Car, The Model 3

nice looking car!

 

Its nice but similar to the S. It even has some Maserati design
in it 's looks. They are playing it safe.

 

If this was a high-tech company it would be called vaporware. They have yet to deliver on the new Model X.

 

By the same token, I guess the Prius Gen IV is vaporware. The Model X has long been coined a 2015 model, no?

Huffpost...what a rag, too bad there's not another source for this.

 

The X was a 2014 roll-out. The Prius Gen V might be vaporware if they were advertising it...which they aren't.

 

And Gen IV was anticipated by many to be a 2015 model (now penciled in for 2016), so...

OK, I guess I haven't seen any Tesla adverts either, unless we're counting these little promotional puff pieces like the article at Huff? And if we are, Tesla doesn't have a dealer network so I can understand why there might be a little over-exuberant forecasts here and there. I just researched recent news about the X, and Musk confirmed back in May 2014 a March 2015 rollout. Wouldn't be the first delay for the company, won't be the last. I do wonder how many times Musk has to prove his resolve before the naysaying is withheld. Will 3 (with the X) be the charm?

 

And the PiP was going to be rolled out nationwide last summer, and then last winter.
Delays happen when working on projects this big.
No one likes it, but they happen.

As for the look, that is an Auto Express artist's rendering. Complete guess.
They may be close, however they may not.

I am sure there will be a consistent Tesla 'family' resemblance. However there are no Tesla released drawings yet.

 

The artist's guess looks a lot like a Fusion, but I rather like that car so it's not a bad thing.

They don't even know for sure where the new Gigafatory is going to be built (named for it's projected cost? ) so it's not quite what my beloved Govermint would call a shovel-ready project. Still.....Elon has an interesting habit of doing things that he's not supposed to be able to do.

If this car were on the ground right now for 40K?
They'd certainly sell every one that they could make, and have a hefty waiting list, but the numbers don't quite shake out yet.
They say that this car is going to be half the price of an S-model by reducing the car's bulk (and battery) by 20-percent, which tells me that this is going to be a 40-50 kilobuck car instead of the $35,000 that they're aiming for, and a 2017-18 launch date.

It's an impressive step to be sure, but we're still looking at a Lexus/Audi/Mercedes demographic rather than Ford/Chevy/Toyota.

If it really has a 200-mile range in places that don't have water restrictions, and it costs less than $50K without the Gover'mint kickbacks?
They'll still sell every one that they can make even with the occasional fires and schedule setbacks.

 

It is targeted as a direct BMW 3 series competitor.
I suspect they will leave the economy level to Nissan and any others that care to jump into that market.

Why the jibe at fires though? Tesla has fewer fires than Toyota does I bet. Especially if you discount 100 mph crashes

 

The same reason everybody else does....
The EV community would be a little more mainstream if they had a more agile sense of humor.
If the hype is true, then the world would be a better place if EVs were more mainstream.

Besides....
Do not discount the fire thing.
There's never once....not EVER been a case of real u/a in a Prius.
And yet........the folks in Aichi have to write Uncle Sam a check with nine zeros in it because they tried to shove everything under the carpet (or in this case... floor mats? )

 

So because Toyota suffered due to an event that wasn't really an issue, Toyota fans should inflict the same baseless pain on other companies??

 

No...that's not where I'm going with this.
People need to stop getting their hackles up every time somebody uses the words 'fire' and "Tesla" in the same paragraph.

 

Sorry, perhaps I am overly sensitive to people spreading bad information, in jest or not.
Couldn't stand it when people were spreading around the foolishness about the Canadian Nickel mine, the Volt fire, or the Tesla Fire silliness.

What I am most concerned about is not the person making the claim, it is all the people that are reading the claim that don't understand it is made in jest, or is just full of it.

 

Panasonic partnership in the GigaFactory is official!

Panasonic, Tesla agree to partnership for US car battery plant- Nikkei Asian Review